100 Best Values in Private Colleges and Universities

Let’s face it. Times are tough, and many parents are wondering exactly how they’ll pay for college, especially if their child plans to attend a private university. But there’s some good news on the economic front. Kiplinger’s Magazine reports that independent colleges kept tuition increases to the lowest level in four decades in the 2009-2010 academic year while boosting financial aid by 9 percent. The result is that enrollment held steady as families discovered that private colleges were still affordable, the magazine reports.

Kiplinger’s also ranks the 100 best values in private colleges and universities in its December 2009 edition and reports that the schools that made the list offer a “top-quality education at an affordable price – usually because of generous financial aid.” California Institute of Technology in Pasadena led the rankings of private universities, with institutions like Wake Forest, Princeton, MIT, Yale, Harvard, Stanford and Duke rounding out the top 25. In a separate ranking of liberal arts colleges, Pomona College in Claremont came in first for the second consecutive year. See how other schools fared.